Target Audience: Music Magazine

Target Audience: Music Magazine on Prezi

Genre of Magazine:

Music Genre for my Magazine on Prezi

LIIAR: Liam Gallagher NME contents page

Language: The contents page of NME is conventional for music magazine because it uses a lot of images in a spread out way which makes it very accessible because it is so open and more inter active. It does however have a small list which shows the main, regular features of the magazine, this is conventional because all music magazines have a list containing the main features of the magazine. Quotes from artists interviewed are anchored just below the image, these are generally the most rude or controversial comment for the article, because it is still aimed at young people. Also because it is a music magazine these parts of interviews help us to see another side of those who are being interviewed, rather than being on the pedestals we place them on. It is in a simple black and white colour scheme to keep it simple and easily read because it does not need a lot of colour or excitement, this would detract from the articles stated. Although it is still a mixture, NME now uses more Serif fonts than it used to, which is because it has started to look more refined because now it has the age to support the legendary status of the magazine. This is becoming quite the trend for music magazine, Q although always being refined, has become a lot smarter and more professionally designed than it used to be. On the bottom right NME utilises the space to put in an advert for subscription over Christmas, this will be conventional in most magazines at this time of year (November) as they want to use any free space in order to plug their own product so that they do have a definite readership for the coming year.

Institution: IPC media is the publishing house which produces NME and rather than having it all published by the same people all their magazines are ran separately in separate offices so therefore this magazine will not look the same as UNCUT for example ( another IPC product).

Ideology: The ideology on the cover is continued on the contents page, the more famous on the page (Liam Gallagher and Tom Meighan) are placed at the top of the page and centrally in order to be seen and read, the lesser articles are spread around them. This placement shows how the magazine focuses on the more famous musicians but uses them in order to introduce other artists, because you would not buy the magazine if there was no one you knew in it. However it does keep a lot of unheard of acts in the contents as these are all featured musicians with article about them or interviews with them.  The layout makes it look more formal and well designed by being quite simplistic and spacious, whilst the pictures keep it easy to read and not overbearing, just as a contents should be.

Audience: NME is aimed at 16 – 19 year old men who have a keen interest in music. This contents represents this because it uses acts who are either not much older than their target audience (20’s ) so therefore more of the targeted audience are likely to buy it because they see people alike to themselves.

Representation:  NME as of late has started to represent itself in a much more formal, professional way which is reflected here by the serif fonts and minimalistic spacious designs. However it does keep its youth appeal by still using bold sans serif fonts so that it does not look ‘boring’ like it may if the font/ design looked too old.

LIIAR: Liam Gallagher NME Cover

Language: in NME’s splash you can see one large masthead stating NME in red which is conventional for NME because it has always been there since the start of the magazine and is never changed in place. The skyline tells us about Kasabian and a quote from them “HYDE PARK IS CALLING” this shows how the magazine is interested in this, and that this is one of the main topics that the magazine will be talking about. The date is located with the price in small just below the masthead, this is there because it is more of a referential place to have it and because this way it is more likely to be noticed. It does however have the date and price anchored to the barcode also but this is less obvious because it blend in with the rest of the writing on the barcode, (other prices and the website). The barcode is here in order for it to not encroach onto the main image and stay more out of the way because otherwise it may make the magazine tacky and unprofessional. Both the left and right third of the magazine are filled with cover lines about the bands/artists involved in the magazine. Anchored onto the main image is a large quote from Liam Gallagher, which is supposed to make you want to the magazine because of who he is and who he is talking about the colour scheme works well because it has always been used on NME magazine, but only recently exclusively. The red works well on all the largest lettering because it is the largest and brightest colour on the magazine.

Institution: IPC Media creates NME and a lot like Bauer Media (Q magazine) it has magazines which are specifically targeted at certain audiences for example Rugby World.

Ideology: NME’s ethos is to create a publication which focuses more on the music of the times , Live and CD review wise rather than just focusing on one certain aspect of music. It may regularly be disloyal to bands it used to like because it simply wants to be bought because of who is in it at the time. It helps that NME sells itself as part newspaper and part magazine because it is weekly and its short therefore more brief and concise than a longer monthly magazine which would be harder and more expensive to read.

Audience: NME is aimed at young people aged 16 – 19 or slightly older and as a majority is read by men, music magazine tend to be more aimed at men because there seem to be more music writers who are male not female. Also it holds more laddish bands as good and will not feature people like JLS or Justin Bieber because they are usually only liked by girls.  

Representation: NME represents itself quite formally and professionally, like a paper, because this makes it look a lot more refined and substantial than it is. The black and white image of Liam Gallagher helps to create this effect because of its aged look, and how respectful it looks. This represents NME well because it isn’t a cheap picture of a band no one has heard of, showing  that NME has grown up a lot so now even weekly can afford to get big names upon its pages.

LIIAR: Liam Gallagher Q Magazine Double Page Spread

Language:  In relation to the cover article each interview has a small masthead in the skyline which states “Music That Changed My Life” then a larger title for the piece, which in this case is the band ELBOW. It splits the interview up into columns in order to keep it from becoming too all ensuing and takes up the entire page with just words, which makes it more difficult and too big to read; this makes it feel more colloquial and like a brief chat. When a member of a band talks it is written in red and scripted in order to make it easier to imagine the whole conversation as you read about it. The band names in the interview have been highlighted to emphasize the importance of music in the magazine but also to make sure that the original subject of the interview is (music that changed my life) down the centre of the first page there are a few album covers, these are here because when you first look at the interview these draw your eye after the masthead and picture and make the interview feel more interactive and somewhat more referential because these are more ‘absolute’ facts. The main image shows the whole band in a very relaxed situation rather than if they were posing for an album interview where they may be more serious. This image though, by being very casual makes the interview wholly informal which helps because influences is something that we are all interested in from a band we like which helps if they seem to be talking to us.

Institution: this represents Bauer media well because it has kept in form with the rest of the magazine and is a band that are targeted at a certain type of audience, because younger people may find them ‘boring’.

Ideology:  The ethos of Q magazine is continued on these pages, this is shown because of how the magazine highlights all of the mentions of other bands, showing that they are interested in the music still and not just trying to get another interview with the band. The interviews graphics also have to be kept formal, as they have been, in order to keep with the convention of Q’s style and appearance.

Audience: The piece is aimed at men aged 20 – 30+ but because the music of Elbow does not straight away appeal to ‘lad’ lads the interview has to show a different side to elbow, a more chatty and ordinary side than they would have already seen. We can see it is aimed at readers interested in music because it has highlighted the key influences of the band, showing more than just another phatic interview.

Representation:  Elbow are a very mature band so therefore the piece has to represent this, it does this by a greyscale picture which gives them a look of more age/experience and helps to make them look more respected and refined. This in turn represents the magazine well because they look relaxed and yet smart, like the magazine tries to pass itself off as.

LIIAR: Liam Gallagher Q Magazine Contents Page

Language: Q magazine, rather than having the conventionally 1 page listed contents spreads its contents across two pages in order to create more of a visual appeal.  In the centre of the page most of the images are located, this is so that all of the written parts can be spread around this so that then when a reader is flicking through they will seer the edges of the contents page, making accessible while keeping a good graphic appeal throughout the magazine. It still has the month that the magazine is issued in the bottom right along with the Q logo and websites, the Q magazine website and a way to subscribe to the magazine. It uses red & white as a main colour scheme with black writing, this is consistent with the logo and the rest of the magazine.

Institution: Bauer media, whilst designing the magazine will always try to create a good, refined fel to it which helps to sell the magazine to older generations as it is formal in design and writing.

Ideology:  Q magazine’s contents wants to create  a contents which keeps with how the front cover appears, therefore here we have a lot of big stars or at least well renowned musicians, for example Bowie, Coldplay and Beyonce, showing that this magazine has only the best/best known artists, not just anyone. The spacious design of the contents helps to keep the magazine keep with its want to look refined and formal rather than just being a loose and unprofessional publication.

Audience: The contents is constructed in order to entice new readers rather than reinforce the old readers because they will know at least roughly where parts of the magazine are, so therefore won’t need this to tell them where to look for different parts of the magazine.

Representation: The contents continues the good representations which the cover started by looking formal and refined, this represtents the magazine well because it suites the vocabulary and grammatical choices displayed in the magazine and also the views because it uses prolific artists, unlike NME who, chances are, you won’t recognise them every week.

LIIAR: Liam Gallagher Q Magazine Front Cover

            Language: Q uses a large square masthead which is recognised by everyone because it is such a prolific magazine and well reputed. It is located at the top left so that it coincides with the left third and also so that it can be seen from the top this is conventional to magazines because this is the part of the magazine which will be seen most, and consumers will always look here for the masthead. This magazine is slightly unconventional because it is a 25^th Anniversary Collector’s Editions, which is displayed on the skyline which can also be seen when the magazine is sticking out of a rack. This is especially attractive because it is a collector’s edition magazine so therefore people are more likely to buy it because of this. The right third of the magazine is a list of artists who are covered in the magazine with the title cover line “THE MUSIC THAT CHANGED MY LIFE” and the list contains musicians that most people have heard of and know, therefore may buy the magazine. On the left third it simply says “#03 OF 25 COVERS TO COLLECT” to try and make absolute collectors collect other issues which just have different covers. The main image is of Liam Gallagher, someone who is easily recognised by everyone especially by people who are likely to pick up and read Q. His name is anchored on the lower part of the page in a font which is handwritten, so therefore gives it more of a personal feel and connotes that the artist wants to tell the reader about it. The barcode is located with the price and date as they will conventionally be located together rather being in completely different places. At the bottom there is another cover line: “PLUS! 145 ALBUMS TO DISCOVER” is also there so that regular readers are shown that regular articles are have not been removed and also so that there are other things in the magazine rather than just interviews with the ‘big stars’.

Institution: Bauer Media publishes Q, and an assortment of other magazines. Each of these magazines are aimed at an individual and specific target audience rather than trying to reach the whole of the market within their one magazine. Q is aimed at men around 20 – 30+ or older because it presents itself as more formal and refined than other music magazines.  

Ideology: The ideology of the magazine is to be a ‘Q’uality music magazine which provides a more refined version of a music magazine than NME or Kerrang! would, with a larger span of genres than these magazines.

Audience: this cover is aimed at people whom know music well and know the key ‘players’ in it. So therefore they will use big name stars like Liam Gallagher in order to attract readers because these are people that everyone knows whereas NME may use more obscure artists because readers rely on it for new music rather than those who are already famous. Q is aimed more at men than women, and its readership will be older than NME, so they will by 20 - 30+ years old because it is more refined than a lot of other magazines.

Representation: Q magazine represents itself through looking smart and refined, without cluttering the cover with cover lines and a series of anchored images which relate to these. It is a very formal cover with formal features, for example the large Q is in a serif font, therefore making it more formal and smart. Also there is the gold lined border which can be seen lining around the page which again helps to make it look smarter and more refined rather than an unprofessional magazine which is cluttered and badly designed.